Embedded virtual media

ABSTRACT

A method and an optical storage medium are provided for storing data to and accessing data from an embedded virtual medium within the optical storage medium. Information describing the embedded virtual medium may be stored on to the optical storage medium. Space for an embedded lead-in area of the embedded virtual medium, as well as user data for the embedded virtual medium, may be allocated within a data zone of the optical medium. A spare sector bitmap may be included in a lead-an area of the optical medium indicating spare sectors within the embedded virtual medium as being unavailable. A spare sector bitmap may be included within the embedded virtual medium indicating available spare sectors of the embedded virtual medium. Physical sector/logical block mapping of the optical storage medium may be modified for accessing data stored on the embedded virtual medium.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.60/979,419, entitled “Embedded Virtual Media”, and filed in the U.S.Patent and Trademark Office on Oct. 12, 2007.

BACKGROUND

An attempt has been made to provide secure storage on a removablemedium, such as an optical disk. However, the attempt to provide thesecure storage had several limitations, such as, for example: theremovable medium was not fully backward compatible with earlier versionsof the medium; a firmware implementation was very complex due to, forexample, a logical block address (LBA) space with “holes” as well asother issues; edge cases, and a changing maximum number of availabletracks or sessions on the medium.

Physical sectors are all sectors on a medium, including those sectorsnot normally accessible by a user. LBA space includes only those sectorson the medium that the user can read and typically starts at somephysical sector number other than zero.

SUMMARY

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that is further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

In a first embodiment consistent with the subject matter of thisdisclosure, a method and an optical storage medium may be provided. Theoptical storage medium may have a lead-in area and a lead-out area. Oneor more embedded virtual media may be created within an optical storagemedium. The one or more embedded virtual media may store encrypted orunencrypted user data. Information describing the one or more embeddedvirtual media may be stored onto the optical storage medium. An embeddedlead-in area of an embedded virtual medium may have space allocated foruser data within the embedded virtual medium.

In a second embodiment consistent with the subject matter of thisdisclosure, a method for accessing information from an embedded virtualmedium on an optical storage medium may be provided. Informationrecorded on the optical medium, which describes the embedded virtualmedium, may be detected. A physical sector number/logical block addressmapping for the optical storage medium may be modified to reflect aphysical sector number/logical block address mapping for the embeddedvirtual medium. A command may be received for switching access from theoptical storage medium to the embedded virtual medium.

In a third embodiment consistent with the subject matter of thisdisclosure, an optical medium is provided. The optical medium mayinclude a data zone for storing user data, an inner zone separating aphysical beginning of a written or writable region from a beginning ofthe data zone, an outer zone separating an end of the data zone from aphysical end of the written or writable region, and an embedded virtualmedium included within the data zone for storing embedded user data.

In some implementations, the data zone of the optical medium may includea first session including information with respect to a legacy filesystem, and a second session including the embedded virtual medium andinformation describing the embedded virtual medium. In otherimplementations, the optical medium may have two layers. A first layermay include a lead-in area, a first portion of the data zone, and amiddle area reserved for layer transitions. A first portion of theembedded virtual medium may be included in the first portion of the datazone. A second layer may include a second middle area reserved for layertransitions, a lead-out area, and a second portion of the data zone. Thesecond portion of the data zone may include a second portion of theembedded virtual medium.

DRAWINGS

In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and otheradvantages and features can be obtained, a more particular descriptionis described below and will be rendered by reference to specificembodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings.Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments andare not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope,implementations will be described and explained with additionalspecificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary optical drive consistent with thesubject matter of this disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating aspects of theexemplary optical drive of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary optical storage medium consistent with thesubject matter of this disclosure.

FIGS. 4-8 illustrate various exemplary layouts of optical storage mediaconsistent with the subject matter of this disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of an exemplary process, which may be performed ona single session optical storage medium consistent with the subjectmatter of this disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of an exemplary process, which may be performedon a multiple session optical storage medium consistent with the subjectmatter of this disclosure.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of an exemplary process for accessing an embeddedvirtual medium consistent with the subject matter of this disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments are discussed in detail below. While specificimplementations are discussed, it is to be understood that this is donefor illustration purposes only. A person skilled in the relevant artwill recognize that other components and configurations may be usedwithout parting from the spirit and scope of the subject matter of thisdisclosure.

Overview

Embodiments consistent with the subject matter of this disclosure mayprovide a method and a machine-readable medium that provides a secureremovable optical storage medium. An embedded virtual medium may becreated within an optical storage medium, such that the optical storagemedium may be fully backwards compatible with a legacy optical drive,while making the embedded virtual medium accessible to an optical driveexecuting with new firmware.

In some embodiments, the embedded virtual medium may include encrypteddata. The encrypted data may be decrypted using the new firmware of theoptical drive, along with a key provided by a user. In otherembodiments, the encrypted data included in the embedded virtual mediummay be decrypted by a user's processing device using a user providedkey. In yet other embodiments, the encrypted data included in theembedded virtual medium may be decrypted by using a combination of keys,for example, some from the user, some from the optical storage medium,and/or some from an external data source.

Optical Drive

FIG. 1 illustrates an optical drive 100 consistent with the subjectmatter of this disclosure. Optical drive 100 may receive an opticalmedium, such as, for example, a Digital Video Disk (DVD) or otheroptical medium, via opening 102. Optical drive 100 may be capable ofreading from and writing to the optical medium.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating aspects of opticaldrive 100. Optical drive 100 may include a bus 210, a memory 230, a readonly memory (ROM) 240, and a processor 260. Bus 210 may permitcommunication among components of optical drive 100.

Processor 260 may include at least one conventional processor ormicroprocessor that interprets and executes instructions. Memory 230 maybe a random access memory (RAM) or another type of dynamic storagedevice that stores information and/or instructions for execution byprocessor 260. Memory 230 may also store temporary variables or otherintermediate information used during execution of instructions byprocessor 260. ROM 240 may include a conventional ROM device or anothertype of static storage device that stores static information andinstructions for processor 260, such as, for example, firmware.

Optical drive 100 may perform such functions in response to processor260 executing sequences of instructions contained in a tangiblemachine-readable medium, such as, for example, memory 230, ROM 240, orother medium. Such instructions may be read into memory 230 from amachine-readable medium or from a separate device via a communicationinterface (not shown).

Exemplary Optical Medium

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary optical medium 300 consistent with thesubject matter of this disclosure. In one embodiment, optical medium 300may be a DVD. Optical medium 300 may include a center hole 302. Data maybe stored in a layer of optical medium 300 having known reflectiveproperties. Recording of data may be along a spiral which may start atan inner portion 304 of optical medium 300, near center hole 302, andmay end at an outer portion 306 of optical medium 300. If a second layeris present, the second layer may include a spiral which may start at theouter portion 306 and may end near center hole 302.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary structure of a single layer opticalmedium consistent with the subject matter of this disclosure. Examplesof optical media having a single layer include, but are not limited to,-ROM, +RW, and -RAM. The optical medium may include an inner zone, adata zone 404, and an outer zone. The inner zone is a region thatseparates a physical beginning of a written or writable region from abeginning of the data zone. Data zone 404 is a written or writableregion reserved for user data. The outer zone is a region that separatesan end of data zone 404 from a physical end of the written or writableregion.

On the exemplary single layer optical medium, a lead-in (LI) 406 may bea contiguous region of the inner zone adjacent to data zone 404. In someembodiments, lead-in 406 may be the inner zone. LI 406 may includeinformation regarding organization of recorded space of the single layeroptical medium.

A lead-out (LO) 408 may be a contiguous region of the outer zoneadjacent to data zone 404. In some embodiments, LO 408 may be the outerzone. LO 408 may include information regarding the organization ofrecorded space of the single layer optical medium.

Data zone 404 may include an embedded virtual medium (EVM) 410. EVM 410may include a LI 412, a LO 414, a data zone 416, and EVM Gap Zones 418,420.

LI 412 may include at least a portion of information related toorganization of recorded space of EVM 410. For example, LI 412 mayinclude information specific to the virtual media, as well as otherinformation, such as, for example, power calibration information. Insome embodiments, LI 412 may not include one or more types ofinformation included in LI 406. For example, power calibrationinformation may be included in LI 406, but not included in LI 412. Otherexamples may include Buffer Zones (typically all zero data), informationwith fixed values for a specific physical media type, etc, which may beincluded in LI 406, but may not be included in LI 412.

LO 414 may include at least a portion of information related toorganization of the recorded space of EVM 410. In some embodiments, EVM410 may not include LO 414.

Data zone 416 may include user data. EVM Gap Zones 418, 420 may beunused areas preceding and following LI 412 and LO 414, respectively. Insome embodiments, EVM Gap Zones 418 and/or 420 may not exist.

A logical track may be one or more sectors with a well-defined usagesequence. The logical track may be an integral number of media specificwritable units. A session may be a collection of one or more logicaltracks having consecutive track numbers. The track or session mayprovide host applications with a method of adding new data to apartially recorded optical medium by, for example, incrementallyappending to existing data.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary structure of an optical medium havingmultiple sessions stored thereon. As illustrated by FIG. 5, the opticalmedium may include LI 502 and LO 504 in an inner and outer zone,respectively. Lead-in (LI) 502 may be a contiguous region of the innerzone adjacent to a data zone. In some embodiments, lead-in 502 may bethe inner zone. LI 502 may include information regarding organization ofrecorded space of the single layer optical medium. LO 504 may be acontiguous region of the outer zone adjacent to the data zone. In someembodiments, LO 504 may be the outer zone. LO 504 may includeinformation regarding the organization of recorded space of the singlelayer optical medium.

The data zone may include multiple sessions, such as, for examplesession 1 506 and session 2 508. Session 1 506 may include informationwith respect to a legacy file system, such that a non-EVM awarehost/computer/CE (Consumer Electronics) or other device may read thefile system stored at Session 1 (506). Session 2 508 may includemetadata 512 having information describing an EVM 510, and may furtherinclude EVM 510. In some embodiments, metadata 512 may be included in avolume descriptor (not shown) in an area outside of EVM 510. In otherembodiments, metadata 512 may be included in EVM Gap Zone 520 adjacentto a LI 514 of EVM 510. Metadata 512 may include a physical sectornumber (PSN) or a logical block address (LBA) of a beginning of EVM 510.Other information may also be included in metadata 512, such as, forexample, a name for EVM 510, a unique identifier (UUID) for EVM 510, anending PSN, as well as other useful information. Metadata 512 mayinclude encrypted data, unencrypted data, software code, securitytables, as well as other information.

EVM 510 may include LI 514, a LO 516, a data zone 518, and EVM Gap Zones520, 522. LI 514 may include at least a portion of information relatedto organization of recorded space of EVM 510. For example, LI 514 mayinclude information specific to the virtual media, as well as otherinformation, such as, for example, power calibration information. Insome embodiments, LI 514 may not include one or more types ofinformation included in LI 502. For example, as similarly mentioned withrespect to FIG. 4, power calibration information and/or other data maybe included in LI 502, but not included in LI 514. LO 516 may include atleast a portion of information related to organization of the recordedspace of EVM 510. In some embodiments, EVM 510 may not include LO 516.

Data zone 518 may include user data. EVM Gap Zones 520, 522 may beunused areas preceding and following LI 514 and LO 516, respectively.

Some optical media may enable an optical media drive to manage hardwaredefects. Examples of such optical media include, but are not limited to,DVD-RAM and rewritable Blu-Ray disc (BD-RE). In optical media capable ofenabling an optical media drive to manage hardware defects, areas on theoptical media may be set aside as replacements or spare areas to be usedwhen normal areas cannot be written to reliably.

In one implementation, the spare areas may be spread across the opticalmedium, interleaved at fairly regular intervals, such as, for example, Nnormal sectors followed by X spare area sectors. An EVM may thereforeimplicitly include a spare area for sectors included in the EVM whenallocating the sectors for the EVM.

FIG. 6 illustrates the multi-session optical medium of FIG. 5 capable ofmanaging hardware defects. Spare sector bitmap 602 may be included aspart of LI 502. Spare sector bitmap 602 may indicate which of sparesectors of the optical medium are in use, bad, available, etc. In oneembodiment, spare sector bitmap 602 may indicate that spare sectorsincluded within EVM 510 are bad or damaged in order to prevent a legacyoptical drive from using a spare sector within EVM 510.

Spare sector bitmap 604 may be included in LI 514 of EVM 510. Sparesector bitmap 604 may be a bitmap with respect to spare sectors includedwithin EVM 510. As hardware defects are discovered in normal sectors ofEVM 510, a spare sector may be selected as a replacement, based on anavailable spare sector as indicated by spare sector bitmap 604. Opticaldrive firmware may direct selection of the available spare area sectoras the replacement and may direct modification of spare sector bitmap604 to indicate that the selected spare area sector is in use.

FIG. 7 illustrates the multi-session optical medium of the FIG. 5 withanother managed hardware defect implementation. In this implementation,a primary spare area (PSA) 702 and a secondary spare area (SSA) 704 mayexist at a beginning and an end, respectively, of the data zone. Each ofPSA 702 and SSA 704 may include a respective bitmap regarding the use ofspare sectors. The bitmaps of PSA 702 and SSA 704 may indicate thatspare sectors included within EVM 510 are bad or damaged in order toprevent a legacy optical drive from using a spare sector within EVM 510.EVM 510 may include PSA 706 and SSA 708, which may include bitmaps withrespect to spare sectors included within EVM 510. As hardware defectsare discovered in normal sectors of EVM 510, a spare sector may beselected as a replacement, based on an available spare sector asindicated by the bitmap of PSA 706 or SSA 708. Optical drive firmwaremay direct selection of the available spare area sector as thereplacement and modification of the bitmap of PSA 706 or SSA 708 toindicate that the selected spare area sector is in use.

Some optical media are dual-layer media with a first layer recordingdata in a spiral from an inner portion of the optical media to an outerportion of the optical media and a second layer recording data in aspiral from the outer portion of the optical media to the inner portionof the optical media. A PSN of the first layer may be a bitwise inverseof a PSN of the second layer. Thus, an optical drive may easily seek toa given PSN from either layer, while keeping relative arithmetic betweenPSN/LBA mappings. However, a small portion of PSNs on the first layermay not have a corresponding PSN on the second layer, as will beexplained below.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary layout of a dual-layer optical mediumconsistent with the subject matter of this disclosure. FIG. 8illustrates a tracking path, or spiral, of layer 0 going from an innerzone to an outer zone of the dual-layer optical disc. LI 802 may be acontiguous region of the inner zone of layer 0 adjacent to a data zone804 of layer 0. On some dual-layer optical media LI 802 may be the innerzone of layer 0. LI 802 may include information relating to organizationof recorded space of the dual-layer optical disc.

The outer zone of layer 0 may include a Middle Area (MA) 805. MA 805 maybe a region reserved for layer transitions. Similarly, an outer zone oflayer 1 may include a Middle Area (MA) 806, which may be a regionreserved for layer transitions.

LO 808 of layer 1 may be a contiguous region of an inner zone of layer1, adjacent to a data zone 810 of layer 1. LO 808 may includeinformation relating to an organization of recorded space of thedual-layer optical medium.

A tracking path, or spiral, of layer 1 may go from the outer zone oflayer 1 to the inner zone of layer 1.

A layer 0 portion of an EVM 812 may be included in data zone 804 and mayfurther include a buffer 814, a LI 816, and a data zone 818. A layer 1portion of EVM 820 may include a buffer 822, a LO 824, and a data zone826. Note that buffer 822, LO 824, and data zone 826 may be located ontop of buffer 814, LI 816, and data zone 818, respectively.

LO 808 may be slightly larger than LI 802 and MA 805 may be slightlylarger than MA 805. Thus, some PSNs of LO 808 and some PSNs of MA 805may not have corresponding PSNs in layer 0.

Exemplary Processing

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for creating anEVM within an optical storage medium having a single session. Theprocess may begin with information describing the EVM being stored onthe optical storage medium (act 902). The information may includemetadata indicating a PSN of a start of the EVM and a size of the EVM.In other embodiments, the information may include other data descriptiveof the EVM. In some embodiments, the information may be included in avolume descriptor included on the optical storage medium outside of theEVM.

Next, space may be allocated for a LI of the EVM (act 904) and a LO ofthe EVM (act 906). The LI and the LO may include information regardingorganization of recorded space of the optical storage medium.

A check may be made to determine whether the optical storage medium isof a type capable of hardware defect management (act 908). If theoptical storage medium is of a type capable of hardware defectmanagement, then one or more bitmaps regarding spare sectors of the EVMmay be allocated, as discussed with respect to FIGS. 6 and 7 (act 910).One or more bitmaps of the optical storage medium, outside of the EVM,may be altered such that the one or more bitmaps indicate that sparesectors included within the EVM are in use or bad (act 912) to prevent alegacy optical drive from using any spare sector areas within the EVM.

Space may then be allocated for a user data area within a data zone ofthe EVM and data may be stored within the user data area (act 914). Theoptical storage medium may then be marked as a read only medium (act916) in order to make it difficult to inadvertently write to the EVM ona legacy optical drive. In some embodiments, the marking of the media asread-only may be done using a password, shared secret, or otherauthentication/authorization method. Alternatively, the optical storagemedium may not be marked as a read only medium.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for creating anEVM within an optical storage medium having multiple sessions, such as,for example two sessions. The process may begin with creating a firstsession within a data zone by allocating at least one logical trackwithin the first session (act 1002). The first session may be a closedsession. A second session may then be created by allocating at least oneother logical track within the second session (act 1004). The secondsession may be an open session and may include an EVM.

A legacy optical drive may be capable of reading only from closedsessions. Thus, the legacy optical drive may read data from the firstsession, but may not be able to read data from the second session. Alegacy file system may be added to the first session to enable a legacyoptical drive to detect that the optical medium has an EVM, to providethe user with functionality to enable the use of the EVM, and/or topoint to a location with additional information about the EVM (i.e. aURL).

Next, the information describing the EVM may be stored on the opticalstorage medium in the second session (act 1006). The information mayinclude metadata indicating a PSN of a start of the EVM and a size ofthe EVM. In other embodiments, the information may include other datadescriptive of the EVM. The information may be included in a volumedescriptor included on the optical storage medium outside of the EVM.

Space may be allocated for a LI of the EVM in the second session (act1008). The LI may include information regarding organization of recordedspace of the EVM. Next, space may be allocated for a LO of the EVM inthe second session (act 1010). In some embodiments, a LO may not beallocated for the EVM.

A check may be made to determine whether the optical storage medium is atype capable of hardware defect management (act 1012). If the opticalstorage medium is of a type capable of hardware defect management, thenone or more bitmaps regarding spare sector areas of the EVM may beallocated, as discussed with respect to FIGS. 6 and 7 (act 1014). One ormore bitmaps of the optical storage medium, outside of the EVM, may bealtered such that the one or more bitmaps indicate that spare sectorareas included within the EVM are in use or bad (act 1016) to prevent alegacy optical drive from using any spare sector areas within the EVM.

Space may then be allocated for any user data area within a data zone ofthe EVM and data may be stored within the user data area (act 1018).Areas of the EVM, such as, for example, tracks of the EVM may be markedas unavailable for writing (act 1020) in order to make it difficult toinadvertently write to the EVM on a legacy optical drive.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for reading anoptical medium, which may include one or more EVMs. The process maybegin with an optical drive detecting a presence of an optical medium(act 1100). The optical medium may have a structure as described in anyof FIGS. 4-8. A check may be made to detect a presence of one or moreEVMs on the optical medium (act 1102). In some embodiments, the presenceof one or more EVMs may be detected by existence of metadata recorded onthe optical medium. The metadata may be recorded in a volume descriptoron the optical medium and may include information describing the one ormore EVMs. If the presence of one or more EVMs on the optical medium isnot detected, then the process may end and the optical medium may beread in a conventional manner.

If the presence of one or more EVMs is detected, then a determinationmay be made as to whether the optical drive is capable of writing to theoptical medium (at 1104). If the optical drive is capable of writing tothe optical medium, then the optical medium may be marked as writable(act 1106). In some embodiments, the marking of the media as writablemay be done using a password, shared secret, or otherauthentication/authorization method.

Next, a command to switch from the physical optical medium to the EVMmay be enabled (act 1108), such that once the command to switch to theEVM is performed, the EVM may be accessed as if the EVM is the physicaloptical medium.

The optical drive may then receive a command (act 1110). A check may bemade to determine if the command is a “switch to EVM” command (act1118). If the received command is a “switch to EVM” command, then theoptical drive will prepare to access the EVM as described by themetadata, including information with respect to the EVM (act 1120). Insome embodiments, the command “switch to EVM” may include portions ofthe metadata; encryption and/or decryption keys or derivatives; orcombinations thereof. When switching to the EVM, modification of aPSN/LBA mapping, or translation, with respect to the EVM, may beperformed. In some embodiments, the modification of the PSN/LBA mapping,or translation, may be delayed until the optical drive prepares toaccess the EVM, in response to receiving a request to access the EVMfrom a processing device, such as, for example a host computer, or otherprocessing device.

Next, a command to switch to another EVM may be enabled, such that thecommand to switch to another EVM may be performed if requested (act1122). A command to switch to the physical medium may be enabled, suchthat the command to switch to the physical medium may be performed ifrequested (act 1124). At this point, the EVM may be accessed, and acts1110-1124 may be repeated upon receiving another command.

If, during act 1118, the received command is determined not to be a“switch to the EVM” command, then a determination may be made todetermine whether the received command is a “switch to physical medium”command (act 1126). If the received command is determined to be a“switch to physical medium” command, then the optical drive may performthe “switch to physical medium” command to prepare to access thephysical medium, rather than an EVM. After switching to the physicalmedium, the optical drive may access the physical medium. Act 1110 maythen be repeated to receive a next command.

If, during act 1126, the received command is determined not to be a“switch to physical medium” command, then a check may be made todetermine whether the received command is a “switch to other EVM”command (act 1112). If the received command is determined to be a“switch to other EVM” command, then the optical drive may switch to theother EVM, as described by metadata recorded on the optical medium (act1116). The other EVM may then be accessed by the optical drive and act1110 may be repeated to receive a next command.

If, during act 1112, the received command is determined not to be a“switch to other EVM” command, then the optical drive may processanother command, as received (act 1114). Act 1110 may then be repeatedto receive a next command.

As previously mentioned, information included within the EVM may beencrypted. In some embodiments, a decryption key from a user, or acombination of decryption keys from multiple sources, such as, forexample, the user, the optical medium, an external data source, or othersources may be determined and used for decrypting at least a portion ofthe EVM.

Miscellaneous

Although not specifically stated above, similar techniques may beapplied to other optical media, such as, for example, compact disc (CD),high definition (HD)-DVD, Blu-Ray (BD), or other optical media.Therefore, embodiments are not limited only to DVDs. Further, opticalstorage media may include one EVM or multiple EVMs.

Although FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate one or more spare sector bitmaps beingincluded within an EVM, in some embodiments, the EVM may have no sparesector bitmaps or the EVM may have one or more spare sector bitmaps witha size of zero. In other words, defect management of the EVM may beinherited from a physical medium without repeating the one or more sparesector bitmaps within the EVM.

CONCLUSION

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter in the appended claims is not necessarilylimited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, thespecific features and acts described above are disclosed as exampleforms for implementing the claims.

Although the above descriptions may contain specific details, they arenot be construed as limiting the claims in any way. Other configurationsof the described embodiments are part of the scope of this disclosure.Further, implementations consistent with the subject matter of thisdisclosure may have more or fewer acts than as described, or mayimplement acts in a different order than as shown. Accordingly, theappended claims and their legal equivalents define the invention, ratherthan any specific examples given.

1. A method for creating an embedded virtual medium within an opticalstorage medium having a lead-in area and a lead-out area for the opticalstorage medium, the method comprising: storing information describingthe embedded virtual medium onto the optical storage medium; allocatingspace for at least a portion of data for an embedded lead-in area of theembedded virtual medium, the embedded lead-in area being included withinthe embedded virtual medium; allocating space for user data within theembedded virtual medium; and marking an optical storage medium bitmap ofspare sectors, including spare sectors within the embedded virtualmedium, as one of in use or bad with respect to the spare sectorsincluded in the embedded virtual medium, to avoid use as a replacementfor a sector of a non-embedded virtual medium area of the opticalstorage medium.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: allocatingat least one logical track of the optical storage medium to a firstsession, the at least one logical track of the first session beingreadable by a legacy drive; and allocating at least one other logicaltrack of the optical storage medium to a second session, the embeddedvirtual medium being included within the second session.
 3. The methodof claim 2, further comprising: adding a legacy file system to the firstsession to enable the legacy drive to detect that the optical storagemedium includes the embedded virtual medium; including, in the secondsession, metadata having information describing the embedded virtualmedium.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: marking theoptical storage medium as a read only medium regardless of a type of theoptical storage medium.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:marking areas of the embedded virtual medium as unavailable for writingto prevent a legacy drive from writing to areas of the embedded virtualmedium.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: includingencrypted data within the embedded virtual medium.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: including, within the embedded virtualmedium, a second bitmap of spare sectors for the spare sectors includedwithin the embedded virtual medium.
 8. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: creating a plurality of embedded virtual media within theoptical storage medium.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing ofinformation describing the embedded virtual medium onto the opticalstorage medium further comprises: recording the information describingthe embedded virtual medium in a volume descriptor on the opticalstorage medium.
 10. A memory having instructions recorded thereon for atleast one processor, such that when the at least one processor executesthe instructions a method is performed for creating an embedded virtualmedium within an optical storage medium having a lead-in area and alead-out area for the optical storage medium, the method comprising:storing information describing the embedded virtual medium onto theoptical storage medium; allocating space for at least a portion of datafor an embedded lead-in area of the embedded virtual medium, theembedded lead-in area being included within the embedded virtual medium;allocating space for user data within the embedded virtual medium; andmarking an optical storage medium bitmap of spare sectors, includingspare sectors within the embedded virtual medium, as one of in use orbad with respect to the spare sectors included in the embedded virtualmedium, to avoid use as a replacement for a sector of a non-embeddedvirtual medium area of the optical storage medium.
 11. The memory ofclaim 10, wherein the method further comprises: allocating at least onelogical track of the optical storage medium to a first session, the atleast one logical track of the first session being readable by a legacydrive; and allocating at least one other logical track of the opticalstorage medium to a second session, the embedded virtual medium beingincluded within the second session.
 12. The memory of claim 11, whereinthe method further comprises: adding a legacy file system to the firstsession to enable the legacy drive to detect that the optical storagemedium includes the embedded virtual medium; including, in the secondsession, metadata having information describing the embedded virtualmedium.
 13. The memory of claim 10, wherein the method furthercomprises: marking areas of the embedded virtual medium as unavailablefor writing to prevent a legacy drive from writing to areas of theembedded virtual medium.
 14. The memory of claim 10, wherein the methodfurther comprises: including, within the embedded virtual medium, asecond bitmap of spare sectors for the spare sectors included within theembedded virtual medium.
 15. An optical drive comprising: at least oneprocessor; and a memory operatively connected to the at least oneprocessor and having instructions recorded thereon for the at least oneprocessor to perform a method, the method comprising: storinginformation describing an embedded virtual medium onto an opticalstorage medium; allocating space for at least a portion of data for anembedded lead-in area of the embedded virtual medium, the embeddedlead-in area being included within the embedded virtual medium;allocating space for user data within the embedded virtual medium; andmarking an optical storage medium bitmap of spare sectors, includingspare sectors within the embedded virtual medium, as one of in use orbad with respect to the spare sectors included in the embedded virtualmedium, to avoid use as a replacement for a sector of a non-embeddedvirtual medium area of the optical storage medium.
 16. The optical driveof claim 15, wherein the method further comprises: marking the opticalstorage medium as a read only medium regardless of a type of the opticalstorage medium.
 17. The optical drive of claim 15, wherein the storingof information describing the embedded virtual medium onto the opticalstorage medium further comprises: recording the information describingthe embedded virtual medium in a volume descriptor on the opticalstorage medium.
 18. The optical drive of claim 15, wherein the methodfurther comprises: including encrypted data within the embedded virtualmedium.
 19. The optical drive of claim 15, wherein the method furthercomprises: creating a plurality of embedded virtual media within theoptical storage medium.
 20. The optical drive of claim 15, wherein themethod further comprises: marking areas of the embedded virtual mediumas unavailable for writing to prevent a legacy drive from writing toareas of the embedded virtual medium.